Preparation of High-Percentage 1T-Phase Transition Metal Dichalcogenide Nanodots for Electrochemical Hydrogen Evolution

Chaoliang Tan, Zhimin Luo, Apoorva Chaturvedi, Yongqing Cai, Yonghua Du, Yue Gong, Ying Huang, Zhuangchai Lai, Xiao Zhang, Lirong Zheng, Xiaoying Qi, Min Hao Goh, Jie Wang, Shikui Han, Xue Jun Wu, Lin Gu, Christian Kloc, Hua Zhang

Research output: Journal article publicationJournal articleAcademic researchpeer-review

281 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Nanostructured transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) are proven to be efficient and robust earth-abundant electrocatalysts to potentially replace precious platinum-based catalysts for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). However, the catalytic efficiency of reported TMD catalysts is still limited by their low-density active sites, low conductivity, and/or uncleaned surface. Herein, a general and facile method is reported for high-yield, large-scale production of water-dispersed, ultrasmall-sized, high-percentage 1T-phase, single-layer TMD nanodots with high-density active edge sites and clean surface, including MoS2, WS2, MoSe2, Mo0.5W0.5S2, and MoSSe, which exhibit much enhanced electrochemical HER performances as compared to their corresponding nanosheets. Impressively, the obtained MoSSe nanodots achieve a low overpotential of −140 mV at current density of 10 mA cm−2, a Tafel slope of 40 mV dec−1, and excellent long-term durability. The experimental and theoretical results suggest that the excellent catalytic activity of MoSSe nanodots is attributed to the high-density active edge sites, high-percentage metallic 1T phase, alloying effect and basal-plane Se-vacancy. This work provides a universal and effective way toward the synthesis of TMD nanostructures with abundant active sites for electrocatalysis, which can also be used for other applications such as batteries, sensors, and bioimaging.

Original languageEnglish
Article number1705509
JournalAdvanced Materials
Volume30
Issue number9
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Mar 2018
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • hydrogen evolution
  • metallic 1T phase
  • MoS MoSSe
  • nanodots
  • transition metal dichalcogenides

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Materials Science(all)
  • Mechanics of Materials
  • Mechanical Engineering

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